It still isn't a niche. The niche you're talking about is melee that also uses magic. There's plenty of specs in WoW that do that. Source of magic is pretty immaterial. The main thing is the combination of melee fighter and magic user, and its already a pretty crowded field. Enhancement Shaman felt that DKs stole a lot of their design when they were implemented. Rogues felt the same way when Monks were implemented. All will feel that way if DHs are implemented.

You do know that Monks can heal by doing melee damage right? Its called Fistweaving. Look it up sometime.
Discipline is still a healing spec buddy.

No, there are abilities that are somewhat similar, but they aren't the same ability, with the same name, that come from the same source. Where do you think Blizzard came up with Metamorphosis? Look no further than the model that they used for the Warlock metamorphosis graphic; Illidan.

Well, your entire statement has proven to me how angry i get at sheer stupidity.

1. its a niche. Doesnt give a damn if its the niche you want or how ever narrow it it, just like a freaking DESTRUCTION WARLOCK, ITS STILL A FREAKING NICHE!

2. Fistweaving is the same damn thing as Smite Healing. I simply proved my damn point that HEY, Priest still do DPS with HOLY. You just dont want to admit it as you are too stubborn to. AND I also proved that MISTweaving is the exact same as shamanism and freaking druidism. but Hey, your all powerful great intellect is not letting you see the OBVIOUS.

3. Vanilla: Only two classes had pets and 1 with a "guardian", no matter what. then they evolved. But hey those classes stole from the first three. No one complained. Soo You want to complain about a single spell, how about you give back all the pets and the guardians you have given out to every class. Oh Sorry, to far back for your remembrance? How about now, with metamorphosis. Since you are sooooo hung up on this damn form. Its basically freaking moonkin form. Used to not be, just a cooldown, which made it better, but now we have IDIOTS saying, oh hey that is exactly how a demon hunter would play, when in reality it was already taken away because it was a cool down, but hey technicalities, right?

So Back to the moonkin crap, currently, all is is an eclipse bar, and basically says hey fill me up and deplete me in demon form. Well damn, that not a very hard concept to imagine. But, oh, its a temporary form, damn. so... shit, lets find someone with a temporary form... oh SHAMAN. or... Druid with Tree of Life... god damn... so many form spells. There cant be any that are similar are there.... ahhh damn... shaman and druid are quite similar, but also different. But wait, if dh came into existence... "it will be demon on demon action, herp derp i cant think of anything better than that cause I have no imagination myehhhh" is all i hear, because, since when did lore completely state that every spec of a demon hunter needs metamorphosis, just like how all shamans need spirit wolves or earthquake. Oh right, because metamorphosis is the name... not like... it cant be renamed... like animate dead to army of the dead or death coil... to mortal coil. Oh but the act of changing into a demon.... RAWR!!! Freaking kidding me? You that dumb to think that an ORC DEMON HUNTER is going to become a Night Elf Demon Hybrid unique ONLY to Illidan? You must have some serious messed up lore, or just a straight moron. I dont know, a Fel-Orc seems minorly demon like to me and more than likely a base towards their full corruption form, like how Night Elves is towards Satyr... OMG. Thats right. You are stuck on the fact that if someone goes "RAWR DEMON FORM!!!!!" they have to transform into Illidan. =.= baddie. Why Do you think my FEMALE ORC WARLOCK transforms into a Corrupted Form of Illidan? because WE STOLE THE FORM AS THE BASIS FOR OUR ABILITY, JUST LIKE KANRETHAD STOLE CATACLYSM FROM FREAKING DEATH WING!!! Freaking hell. How hard is this to get through your head? Blah blah metamorphosis blah blah.

Swords... oh wow. =.= Link me all the spell swords we have had this expansion.

You've listed a lot of points. Like this, all of which ahve been talked about before. All of which are largely irrelevant. That Blizzard hasn't added many spellswords this Xpac doesn't mena it can't add more next XPac.

And like all other arguments against, these are simply your opinion and personal vision of the class. To you, a DH cannot be a Warlock simply because you don't like the idea. To you a Demon Hunter who uses Curses would be anathema...and dso the Demon Hunetrs in game who DO sues Curses are an anomaly. A Demon Hunter kills Demons and would never work with them...and so the Demon Hunter who works with Demons in game is an anomaly, A Demon Hunter must be good and selfess, so the Demon Hunetsrw e see being abd and selfish are corrupted and so need to be ignored.

Ahhh hell, we are onto fourth specs again? Highly freaking unlikely. Get it out of your head, until they announce such a thing, Fourth Specs will not happen to any other class.

Perhaps you should look up the meaning of the word "speculation"?

They tend to add classes because, A. its easier, and B. the other classes will not bitch about it. Oh you forgot about that?

No. OTOH, since its not relevant to Warlocks who already have had a lot of work put into a tanking role and are already more than halfway into a DH themed tanking spec, its not going to take that much work or effort on Blizzards part to add that 4th spec either. Which is why the concept is more viable for Warlocks than some others classes. They are already associated with a tanking type role, have been since Vanilla and already have a fair amount of the necessary toolkit available.

Paladins already had the Light them, Warlocks already have the Shadow theme, Yet, we have Holy and Shadow Priests. Are you serious? You are going to argue themes in this game?

Themes? Yes. But perhaps you'd like to clarify exactly why you think this refers to magic type? It doesn't.

The fact remains, You are clinging to a dead hope that Blizzard cannot create a new class with Metamorphosis.

Can? Of course they can. They WON'T. That's the problem.

Makes goblins and gnomes no longer warlocks? No? damn. because they sure as hell should not be demon hunters.

Why not?

There is are entire canon reasons why Warlocks and Demon Hunters are not the same

Different? Of course they are different. Mutually exclsuive? No.

There needs to be huge retcons

Which is fine. Acceptable. More than acceptable

The RPG is already non-canon so that's that argument done away with. Not that any of its lore actually contradicted the concept anyway.

Heroic Demon Hunters are not greedy

And as soon as you can show that this attitude represents 100% of every single Demon Hunter, you might have a point. There will be good and bad Demon Hunters, just like there are good and bad Warlocks.

There is canon lore differentiating the two classes, down to the very spells.

You've not really looked at a DH spell lists then, have you?

The Dark Embrace is going down the "Dark Path" of becoming a demon hunter. Read the damn scroll and quest text.

Is the Dark Embrace a DH Organisation of some sort? Theres one ingame mention and it says nothing about it being a brotherhood or whatever.

So etc... etc... etc... Every class is the same is what I heard from you. So sit down, and be quiet.

And again yous eem to confuse magic class with class theme. I don't know why....is it because Class Theme and Magi Class both use the word "Class"? Is that why you and others get them confused?

OK - example. The Class theme of Death Knights is "Undeath". The Magic Classes they use are Frost and Shadow
The class theme of Shaman is "Elements". The mMgic Classes they use are Fire, Nature, Frost
The class theme of Warlocks is "Demons". The Magic Classes they use are Fire and Shadow.

The class theme of the Demon Hunter is Demons. They hunt them. They kill them. They use them. They draw power from them. They turn into Demons.The Magic Classes used by Demon Hunters are Fire and Shadow.

Just like Warlocks.

4th spec... hmmm... requires huge retcons

No rtecon is a "huge" retcon?

lots of added lore

"Night Elfs can be Warlocks" is "lots of added lore"?

lots of new spells, lots of new talents as the talents of a warlock will make any melee OP as hell

So - everything they'd be doing anyway.

4th specs for a minimum of 3 other classes, so more spells, more balancing. blah blah blah.

Don't know quite how to break it to you - but giving Warlocks a 4th spec doesn't require any other class to get a 4th spec.

Are you serious? You think all demon hunters want to be tanks?

Whether they do or not, Demon Hunters ARE tanks and if they are implemented as a Warlock 4th spec there is little reason for them not to be implemented as one. There's more room for maneuver on this issue if Blizzard do implement a separate class....but then we're again looking at a Demo Warlock.

So - you points are all null and void and rely upon your own vision of the class. That Demon Hunters are all selfless individuals, who figth for the good of all. And that those in game who differ from your preconceived ideas are somehow anomalous.

The real issue is that Blizzard can easily create a Demon Hunter class. Create three specs for it. Flesh it out and make it interesting to play. They could do that. No problem.

The question is - will they? They can also implement a Demon Hunter as a Warlocks 4th spec. It has the looks, it has the class theme already in play, it already has many of the skills and abilities used by Demon Hunters in WoW and WC3 and while its easy to say it would require a huge retcon, the truth is that the only it would contradict would be the player held concept that Warlocks aren't Demon Hunters or that there are no selfish/bad Demon Hunters.

Which on the face of it, is not an aspect Blizzard is likely to consider.

With so much work already done, with the theme already in place, with Blizzard design direction effectively merging the classes over 6 years, with Blizzard actively stating that they wanted to give Warlock a tanky feel and bring back the tanking aspect at least in part, with them actually doing so much work on turning Warlocks into a true tank during MoP Beta being balked only by running out of time - how likely is it that Blizzard will create a second class that has a theme of Demons? A second class who draws power from them. A second class who can become them. How likely is it that Blizzard will annoy Warlock players by giving another class moves and abilities that Warlocks can see being drawn from and inspired by their class theme?

Why would Blizzard create a second class whose theme and expected abilities are largely already in game?

And no - by "Class theme" I'm not talking "Magic Class", no matter how much you'd like me to argue that. You and others seem to get the two concepts mixed up quite a bit.

The only way they should ever do a Demon hunter is if it uses a bow.
There's currently only 1 class that uses a bow and 0 classes that are mail-wearing tanks.

With WoD, the addition of Shaman tanks is way more likely than a Demon Hunter, due to us getting more to the roots of shamanism and paladinism (as mentioned by the devs in that Q&A they did).

I mean c'mon, they have Rockbitter weapon, Rockbitterweapon Unleash elements, they could use Earth Shield on themselves like a healing Bone shield. Blizzard is really bumming me by not letting Shaman tanking be a thing.

Still doesn't change the lore behind monk healing, which is the use of Mists to heal, which is pretty much a form of shamanism. Of course, we have no reason to say otherwise because Blizzard says so.

And Frost Mages contact water elementals to aid them in controlling ice. Shamanism is kinda farther up the tree with the other magics being derived from it. For all we know Cenarion's Druids are probably just using the Fifth Element (Wild) for their abilities.

All classes to 100. Check. Currently playing Final Fantasy XIV. Homogenization is extreme, but classes are still fun.
My opinions: 5.0 was the golden age of content, the pruning was far too light and 6.2 is actually an enjoyable timesink.